The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

THE CELTIC MYSTERIES.* 125
egg ; though the instances of this form are of rare occurrence,
the adytum being more frequently oviform than
43 the Temple; or
serpentine, because a serpent was the
one hundred feet further in the entrance into the outer court was
another stone of about twenty feet in height. Within the ditch was a
green walk of one hundred and five feet in breadth, which encompassed
the whole structure ;
and this was probably circumambulated by the
aspiraut during the process of initiation. The building itself consisted
of two concentric circles, formed of upright and cross stones of gigantic
size, the largest being twenty-five feet in height, and of a proportionate
breadth and thickness. "The bulk of the constituent part is so
very great," says Stukeley, (Stonehenge, c. 1.) " that the mortaises and
tenons must have been prepared to an extreme nicety ; and like the
fabric of Solomon's Temple, every stone tallied, and neither axes nor
hammers were heard upon the whole structure." The outer circle was
one hundred feet in diameter, and consisted of sixty stones, alluding
to the sexagenary cycle of the Asiatics: one half being uprights and
the other imposts; the inner circle between eighty and ninety feet in
diameter, containing forty stones, in allusion probably to the forty days
prevalence of the diluvian waters. The adytum was oval, because an
egg was the constant symbol of the world ; the outer oval consisted of
ten stones, because ten was a perfect number, and amongst the Pythagoreans
denoted Heaven, as being the perfection of all things, and the
inner oval contained nineteen stones, referring to the cycle of the Sun
and Moon, the two great arkite deities. The adytum contained an
altar.
43 The remains of a small temple of this kind, consisting of sixty
stones, is still in existence at Addingham, in Cumberland, called Long
Meg and her daughters. The transverse diameter from east to west
is one hundred yards and the ;
conjugate from north to south, eighty.
On tho south side, at about the distance of twenty-three yards, stands
the stone called Long Meg, five yards high, and five yards in girt,
which was the idol or object of worship.
43 The temple of Abury, one of the most stupendous erections which
ancient Britain could boast, and whose loss is a national calamity, was
constructed in the form of a circle, to which a vast Serpent was attached.
It is considered to have been one of the earliest structures
erected in Britain, but now, alas ! totally desolated, and scarcely any
vestiges of its existence remain. Its name may probably have been
derived from the Cabiri, as Parkhurst. in loc. ingeniously supposes j
because the Cabiric rites were undoubtedly celebrated within its precincts.
Cabiri, or Abiri, signifies the Mighty Ones j and the mysteries
were dedicated to those benevolent deities who invented and propagated
the arts which elevated man from a savage to a civilized state of
being. This
extraordinary monument of British ingenuity and perseverance,
was erected on the summit of an eminence, in the centre of
an extensive plain, and consisted of a great circle, enclosed with a
stupendous vallum of earth, within which was a deep ditch. The area
of this part of the temple was twenty -eight acres. On the interior
bank was placed a circle of massive unhewn grey stones, generally
about twenty feet in
height. Within this principal circle were two
Smaller double concentric circles of stones, each seven feet high. In